Michaelia Cash: The benefit to Senator Lidia Thorpe’s outburst at Paliament House during King Charles's visit

You may be shocked to hear me say this but there was some good that came from the disgraceful outburst of Senator Lidia Thorpe when King Charles visited Australian Parliament House last week.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t endorse one bit of the self-serving, attention-seeking behaviour of Senator Thorpe.

It brought shame and embarrassment upon our country and our Parliament.

Unfortunately, we see plenty of similar displays by the rogue Senator in the chamber on a regular basis.

It happens so often you almost become immune to it.

I know there are very few Australians watching the Senate daily, so the good that has come from this very public display is that all Australians have now been exposed to it.

And it should be a lesson to all voters that if you vote for the Greens, this is the calibre of extremist you are helping to install in the Australian Parliament.

I know Senator Thorpe is now an independent, but she got her spot in the Senate as a Green — installed there by people in Victoria who voted for the Greens.

Long gone are the Bob Brown days when the Greens were essentially a party of environmentalists.

They are now a party of extremists, putting forward a raft of radical policies that many Australians are not aware of.

The danger this nation is facing is that Anthony Albanese’s Labor could end up forming a minority government with the Greens after the next election.

If that happens who knows what the Prime Minister will agree with to keep the Greens happy.

So many of their policies will be economy-wrecking and detrimental to our prosperity and way of life in this country.

If you think the cost-of-living crisis has been bad under the Albanese Labor Government just wait for what is in store under a Labor-Greens Government.

For example, the Greens recently announced their Robin Hood tax plans. They want to rip $514 billion from big corporations over the next decade.

This ridiculous policy would economically sabotage this nation, undermining investment, jobs and growth across some of our most critical industries.

In WA, the harm to our mining industry would be immense, regional communities would be devastated and the prosperity of our State and in fact, our nation would be destroyed.

Labor claims it doesn’t support such a tax, but who knows what they will agree to in a minority situation.

Ending negative gearing is one thing we know both Labor and the Greens are very keen to do. The Greens are open about wanting to end it while Labor keeps hedging.

Australians still don’t know with real clarity if Mr Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers will impose another broken promise tax hike in regard to negative gearing.

Challenged in Parliament earlier this month, Jim Chalmers said: “We’ve made it really clear that our policy is not to knock off negative gearing or the capital gains discount.”

What does that mean? Does it mean no change? Does it mean some change? Does it mean negative gearing stands to be gutted under Labor, remaining in name only?

More than two weeks on, we still have no answer. We can only assume Labor’s lack of clarity is deliberate.

Throw the Greens into the mix in minority and Labor’s secret plans on negative gearing and capital gains tax will be at the top of the agenda.

It is also worth looking at other Greens policies.

In the past and still part of the material on their website they have “reimagined” the idea of an inheritance tax — rebranding it a “dynastic wealth transfer tax”.

Australians can be assured that a death tax, something that has long been unpopular in this country, is a death tax no matter what fancy name the Greens come up with.

It’s all part of what the Greens call “a reduction in the inequities in the current tax and transfer system”. That rather benign label hides a plethora of policies that would jeopardise our economic stability.

Then there are their plans for $4.5 billion in climate reparations and “the ongoing impacts and legacy of colonialism”.

Their policy agenda reads: “As a wealthy, colonial country, Australia has a responsibility to contribute its fair share of aid and pay reparations for its role in the climate crisis and the ongoing damage caused by Western imperialism.”

Just a couple of weeks ago in the Senate, the Greens showed their whacky ideas about the justice system in this country.

They moved an amendment to the Crimes and Other Legislation Bill urging the Government to reduce fines for criminal convictions for people on income support and increase fines for those earning over $180,000 a year.

One of the basic principles of our justice system is that it is equal for all — the Greens want to upend this.

The Greens are aligned with Labor’s push for a renewables-only energy future, no coal, oil or gas — they just want it to happen much faster. They don’t care whether this will increase energy costs and destroy reliability.

One of the big dangers of the Greens is the threat they pose to social cohesion in this country.

Their extreme anti-Israel views have been constantly on display in the Senate since the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7 last year.

They throw the word genocide around regularly in relation to Israel defending itself from terrorism.

The Greens will no doubt pressure Labor, which has already shown weakness, confusion and equivocation when it comes to Israel and antisemitism.

So, I urge all voters to think about the disgraceful display of Senator Thorpe, the policies of the Greens and what all that could mean if this nation ends up with a Labor-Greens Government.

It will be a dangerous moment for our country.

Michaelia Cash is a Liberal Senator for WA